I am Titanium
by nevergone4ever
Summary: Did you ever wonder how Johanna Mason won her Hunger Games? This will explain it all- her situation, her will, and her strength.


I awoke in our small house shivering in a cold sweat. Today was the Reaping- scary to think that I could be chosen, although the chance was small. I was fifteen and still was available to be Reaped. But how could I? I had signed up for tesserae only twice when my mother and I truly needed it- although it was unbeknownst to her. I had merely said that since I did a better than usual job today, they had given us extra money to buy food.

"Reaping Day," I murmured to myself.

Since a girl's got to eat, I downed a tesserae muffin slathered in butter and honey and a glass of water with a dab of honey for taste. Not very good, but at least we have a bounty in honey.

I slung my two axes back into my sturdy leather belt and left my mother a note. _Gone until noon working. Left at five. Bye._ We aren't the closest of mothers and daughters, but we help each other out. She basically provides for the roof over our heads, and I do the food and essentials- soap, coffee, deodorant…

I ran the two miles to the orchard, then stopped briefly at the old water pump for a drink of water. Next I grabbed the sign-in-and-out sheet and began scribbling my name down. As I did, I heard a voice.

"Johanna! Morning, my buddy!"

It was my thirteen-year-old best friend. It might seem weird, this two-year age gap, but in only a week was her birthday and then she'd be fourteen. Me, I literally turned fifteen a week ago. It was about the middle of ours.

"Hey, Faye," I said tiredly. She took a look at me and gasped. I looked at her confusedly. "What, what is it? Am I growing a mustache? God, I hate those things!"

"N-no, but you have BAGS under your eyes," said Faye pointedly, "and our escort HATES baggy eyes."

Faye should know. Her cousin was Reaped last year and died in the bloodbath.

"Shut up, Faye," I reply and began hacking at a log to make it into woodchips. You'd think that since we live in the richer part of town they'd have the heart to buy us a couple of shredders…

"You excited for the Reaping?" she asks, chopping alongside me.

I shivered. "No. You?"

Faye swallowed. "Not especially."

I could hear the rumbling of her stomach and I put my hands on my hips, staring sternly at her.

"Faye, did you eat today?"

Faye cast her brown eyes down and shook her head softly.

I let out a grumble. "Come with me." With no objections, we signed out and I dragged her to my house, where she devoured a muffin with honey and a treasured gulp of milk.

I looked her in the eye. "Why didn't you eat?"

Faye sighed. "My brothers… they're so hungry…"

I sighed. We'd be here forever if she kept this up.

(((((()))))))

"Johanna Mason!"

My name was called out. My eyes were so round and open as I plodded up to the stage. I was in shock. While the other girls were sighing in relief, poor Faye burst into tears. For her sake, I tried to look like her. Helpless. I'd use this strategy and then try my very best in the Games. But I wouldn't be like a cocky Career- I'd be a weakling.

"Justin Loner!" a short kid of eighteen or so with floppy brown hair sauntered to the stage and stood on the other side of Mill, the escort.

"Hands!" We shook hands.

Faye and Mom and my cousin Roberto came to see me. Faye sobbed through her greeting time, Mom kept asking for me to tell Snow she said hey, and Roberto actually gave me pretty good tips. But Justin got around forty visitors, and I had to wait a couple hours while they all said goodbye.

We boarded the train. It was long and shiny. My cabin was hardly larger than our bathroom at home. Where did they expect me to sleep, the hallway?

Dinner was nice and was served by mute waitresses. Roasted chicken in a red wine sauce, a salad of feta cheese and baby tomatoes, a cold potato and garlic soup, and a tasty pumpkin-based bread. I drank some sparkling apple cider and had a slab of cold and creamy chocolate cake.

"That was the best thing I have ever tasted," I sighed, placing my hand over my stomach. I looked at District Seven's mentor, Stacia, and Mill, and my partner Justin, who snickered.

"I could tell," he said. "I never seen somebody eat so fast."

I was about to make a smart remark in his direction but remembered I was supposed to be a wimp. My bottom lip quivered and I squinted my eyes to produce tears.

"You're so-" I sniffled, "M-m-m-m-m-m-m-MEAN to m-m-me!"

My escort and mentor exchanged worried looks.

The next few days were absolute blurs. The chariot parade, we were clad in tree costumes, and training center was a nightmare. I pretended to really love spears, but never could aim them just right, when all the time I was looking at the axe station out the corner of my eye.

I spent a lot of time at the survival stations, and the edible plants stations as well. I learned how to throw a dagger, and at midnight I'd come down and _then_ my practice would begin. I'd spear dummies to the walls with knives and swords, and I'd bury an axe in a moving dummy's brain. And in the morning I'd act shocked as all when there were weapons littering the floor and the stuffing was pouring out of dummies. I was never a suspect, because I 'failed' miserably at even the axe stations, when those axes were the very ones buried deep in walls and the chests of dummies.

I got a two in the private lessons because a couple of times I forgot I was with other people and threw it too far, so it nicked the dummy.

Interviews were nice. I told Caesar that I believed I could make it to the top fifteen and he laughed. Oh, how he laughed. Tears streamed down his face and his belly shook like Santa Claus. He asked a couple of questions like, 'What's your strategy?' and 'How will you win?' Oh, how the crowd laughed with him. I looked grimly out at them. Hatred burned in my eyes. I'd show them.


End file.
